Half of the team’s driver line-up – Sébastien, Stéphane and Mike – have already experienced parts of the Mexico City circuit, having raced on the 2.14km Formula E lay-out in March, when Sébastien finished on the podium.
Top-level endurance racing last visited in Mexico in 1991, with a 430km race for the penultimate round of that season’s World Sportscar Championship. TOYOTA did not participate in that race, but has competed at the track twice.
1990 neither TOYOTA 90C-V made it to the chequered flag as Johnny Dumfries/Roberto Ravaglia and Geoff Lees/John Watson retired due to technical issues. A year earlier, Dumfries/Watson had qualified third but retired in the race.
Although the event is again held at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, the circuit itself has changed significantly. The track is named after the Rodriguez brothers Ricardo and Pedro; ‘hermanos’ meaning brothers in Spanish. Both were prominent Mexican racers until separate fatal accidents.
The old circuit was famous for the long, slightly banked final turn, named Peraltada. This has been modified for the updated circuit and the final corners now pass through a baseball stadium, although the rest of the track follows the original lay-out.
At 2,285m above sea level, the circuit is the highest on the WEC calendar. The thin air at this altitude requires an ultra-high-downforce aerodynamic package to generate appropriate grip and additional cooling support for the engine and hybrid system.
Last month the ultra-high-downforce TS050 HYBRID finished in fifth and sixth at the Nürburgring on its debut, but TOYOTA is working hard for an improvement in Mexico on a circuit which should better suit the car’s characteristics.
Preliminary indications will come on Thursday when the cars are on track for a total of four-and-a-half hours during a test and two practice sessions. Final practice and qualifying come on Friday before the race starts at 13.30 local time on Saturday.
Toshio Sato, Team President: “Mexico represents a new challenge for us and all teams in WEC; we are all excited to go there to meet our Mexican fans. This race is the mid-point of our season and the start of the flyaway events.
We want a strong performance and I believe we have the potential to achieve this. Even though we bring our ultra-high-downforce package to Mexico, we can expect some impressive top speeds due to the thin air.
We have not run our TS050 HYBRID at such altitude before and the track is new to us so the team will be working hard in practice to prepare the car for the race.”